Cite as:

Historical/Biographical Note:

Fred Junkin Hinkhouse was born Feb. 20, 1895 at Lenox, Iowa to the Rev. John F. Hinkhouse, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife, Amy Junkin Hinkhouse. He was educated at Parsons College in Fairfield, IA, the University of Chicago, and Columbia University where he was awarded the Ph.D. in 1926. His doctoral dissertation, “The Preliminaries of the American Revolution as seen in the English Press, 1763-1775,” was published by the Columbia University Press in 1926 and was reprinted by Octagon Books in 1969. He was later professor and dean at Parsons College.

Organization

Scope and Content:

Diary of Fred Junkin Hinkhouse largely covering his time as an orderly at U.S. Army Base Hospital No. 2 at Étretat, France. The diary begins on Jan. 26, 1917 when Hinkhouse was studying at Columbia University. He joined the U.S. Army on May 7, 1917 as an orderly with the Presbyterian Hospital unit which reached Étretat on June 1. His diary records his daily work on the wards, attendance at religious services and lectures, participation in sports, and at least one visit to Paris. There are many observations of his fellow hospital workers, patients, and the residents of Étretat.

Hinkhouse writes almost daily from Jan. 26 to Dec. 18, 1917 and then more sporadically; his last entry is on July 30, 1918. The last 56 leaves of the volume are made up of newspaper clippings, programs, postcards and photographs.

Sometime after his final entry, he entered the Saumur Artillery School and he finished his military career as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Field Artillery.

Related Records:

Additional holdings relating to Base Hospital No. 2 in Archives & Special Collections include an almost complete set of the hospital newspaper, The Dooin’s; the World War I scrapbook of hospital director, George E. Brewer; and the papers of nurse F. Esther Fortuine. The department also holds a copy of the published diary of nurse Ella Mae Bongard’s diary, Nobody Ever Wins a War (Ottawa: Janeric, 1998).

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Pdf of the original diary received from James F. Hinkhouse, the diarist’s son, 2014 (accession #2014.013).

Processing Notes:

The Archives & Special Collections copy of the diary is a printed version of a pdf of the original received from the donor. The original diary remains the property of the donor.